Tom Swift - Cultural Impact

Cultural Impact

The Tom Swift books have been credited with laying the foundations for success of American science fiction and with establishing the edisonade (stories focusing on brilliant scientists and inventors) as a basic cultural myth. Tom Swift's adventures have been popular since the character's inception in 1910: by 1914, 150,000 copies a year were being sold and in a 1929 study found the series to be second in popularity only to the Bible for boys in their early teens. Up to 2009, Tom Swift books have sold over 30 million copies worldwide.

The series' writing style, which was sometimes adverb-heavy, suggested a name for a type of adverbial pun promulgated in the 1960s, the "Tom Swifties". Originally this kind of pun was called a "Tom Swiftly" in reference to the adverial usage, but over time has come to be called a "Tom Swifty." Some examples are: "'I lost my crutches,' said Tom lamely"; and "'I'll take the prisoner downstairs', said Tom condescendingly."

Tom Swift's fictional inventions have directly inspired several actual inventions, among them Lee Felsenstein's "Tom Swift Terminal", which "drove the creation of an early personal computer known as the Sol", and the taser. The name "taser" was originally "TSER", for "Tom Swift Electric Rifle". The invention was named after the central device in Tom Swift and His Electric Rifle (1911); according to inventor Jack Cover, "an 'A' was added because we got tired of answering the phone 'TSER.'"

A number of scientists, inventors, and science fiction writers have also credited Tom Swift with inspiring them, including Ray Kurzweil, Robert A. Heinlein, and Isaac Asimov. The Tom Swift, Jr. adventures were Steve Wozniak's favorite reading as a boy and inspired him to become a scientist. According to Wozniak, reading the Tom Swift books made him feel "that engineers can save the world from all sorts of conflict and evil".

"Tom Swift's Ultrasonic Cycloplane is developed to break the sound barrier and fly by a different principle from traditional aircraft; his jetmarine is developed to go deeper and faster and use an unusual type of propulsion. The novelty of the invention is the focus; while the invention may in the end accomplish some good, that social end is usually far from the inventor's mind ... inventions seem to be either for the military, especially during World War I (giant cannon, aerial warship, war tank, and air scout) or for the wealthy, who buy the Swift Pigeon Special as a private plane, all contributing to the bottom line for Swift Enterprises ... invention is an avocation, a diversion, made possible by wealth and the already existing advanced technology."